GRID+Storage and FLEXICIENCY projects: EDSO continued commitment to RD&D
March 10 2015, Brussels – Steering and coordinating research, development and demonstration efforts for smart grid acceleration in Europe is one of the principle objectives of European Distribution System Operators for Smart Grids (EDSO). As of 2015, EDSO is a partner in two new initiatives under Horizon 2020, the European Commission’s research funding programme 2014-2020.
The European Commission has selected a consortium led by TECHNOFI and involving EDSO, EASE, ENTSO-E, RSE and VITO to support DG Energy and the Member States over two years in defining a ten-year European R&D roadmap and short-term implementation plans which integrate energy storage into grid research and innovation activities, both at electricity distribution and transmission levels. GRID+Storage is the successor of the GRID+ project, and supports the activities of the European Electricity Grid Initiative (EEGI), and as such is expected to contribute to the European Commission’s Integrated Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET-Plan), indicated in last week’s Energy Union strategy paper. The first deliverable, an implementation plan for 2016-17, will be open to public consultation in April 2015.
Launched in February 2015, the four-year FLEXICIENCY project involving 18 partners across 10 Member States, and built around five demonstrations, aims at facilitating the creation of new business opportunities and innovative services for end users based on consumer data collected though smart metering and made available in “real-time” by DSOs to interested market players, with the agreement of customers. The project will demonstrate the market facilitation potential of DSOs, boosting jobs and growth potential, and seeks to address an important remaining barrier to the higher integration of renewable energy sources: models and platforms for the availability of flexibility from grid users. DSOs are represented in the consortium by EDSO, Enel Distribuzione (Coordinator), Endesa Distribución, ERDF, Vattenfall Eldistribution.
The evolvDSO project is approaching the halfway mark, and is in the critical stage of preparing advanced tools to be used by DSOs when performing new or evolving roles, for example, for network planning, operational scheduling and grid optimisation, as well as operation and maintenance of distribution grids with distributed renewable energy sources.
EDSO believes in the value of knowledge sharing between projects, especially within the context of arriving at European solutions for European challenges. GRIDInnovation onlineis a web-based repository for results from projects with European added value. Furthermore, participation in project Advisory Boards allows EDSO to monitor and advise projects outside of its direct involvement, as such avoiding duplication of efforts and resources and helping to increase the acceptance and usability of solutions across Europe. Such projects include DREAM, ELECTRA and GRID4EU. Meet these projects and others at the Innogrid2020+ conference, to be held in Brussels from March 31 – April 1 2015.
